Bitcoin Dominance Grows to Three Month High as Altcoins Falter

Bitcoin Dominance Grows to Three Month High as Altcoins Falter

Martin Young | December 12, 2018 | 10:00 am

There have been no winners in crypto land this year, everything has been battered. Some have fared better that others, however, and Bitcoin remains on top of the pile despite having lost half its value over the past month or so.

Highest Dominance For Three Months

Bitcoin dominance has made it to a three month high of 55% according to Coinmarketcap. The last time BTC shared so much of the market was in mid-September which it reached a high of almost 58% on the twelfth.

That share has been largely at the expense of Ethereum which has been crushed, falling from 15% to 8.5% over the past three months. Conversely XRP has risen from 5.5% to 11.4% over the same period however this has not been enough to diminish Bitcoin’s supremacy.

The demise of Bitcoin Cash has also been good news for its big brother. Falling from 5% at the beginning of November to a miserly 1.6% market share today, Bitcoin Cash has virtually been laid to rest. BCH is officially the worst performing cryptocurrency in the top twenty, getting smashed 97.5% from its all-time high of $4,100 a year ago next week.

The drop in Bitcoin price has no doubt dragged the rest of the market down with it in a pattern repeated countless times over the past couple of years. Over the past month BTC has dumped 46% from $6,400 to $3,400 but its share of the market has increased.

The most likely scenario is that crypto investors are dropping their altcoins holdings and switching to Bitcoin which can be considered as a more stable store of value. This would explain the dominance increase without a total market capitalization gain.

The crypto cynics and tree huggers have been out in force rejoicing at Bitcoin’s apparent demise and saying that the planet will be a better place without it. The bottom line though is that Bitcoin and blockchain based digital currencies are not going away.

Looking at the bigger picture will bring more perspective. In early 2017 Bitcoin price was around $900 and its market dominance around 85%. The past two years have seen an explosion in alternative cryptocurrencies, some of which are here to stay, some will disappear. The daddy, though having a rough year, appears to be strengthening its domination over the ecosystem in times of hardship.

Image from Shutterstock

Bitcoin Dominance Grows to Three Month High as Altcoins Falter was last modified: December 12th, 2018 by Martin Young

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